How can people have comments and opinions when they don't even know what they are commenting on or have opinions about? Easy. They follow the crowd. They don't need to understand or know. They just follow. They fall into the "this is a just cause" trap and buy into the lie without really understanding what it is all about. People get hurt or killed and property gets destroyed in the process, but history was not changed or erased.
Our job is to teach history. Teach the facts. Period. It is not our job (as the media seems to believe) to think for our students or sway them. Present the facts. All of the facts. Not just the ones that suit our beliefs, but even the ones that make us stop and question our own opinions.
History isn't pretty. But, it is real. It happened. Burning books, destroying buildings, changing names, and pulling down statues won't change it. We can't make it go away. We can't rewrite history books so that they say what we want them to say. We can learn from our past. We can weigh the information and make informed decisions. We can choose to be educated, rather than ignorant.
Rather than be indignant over a statue or name of a park, we could be doing something about slavery today. Slavery didn't die in 1865. The detestable practice continues today. It isn't confined to a race. Or a place. It happens in your state. In your country. In our world. Slavery is just as horrific today as it was over 150 years ago. Brothers are still lured by the shiny coin to sell out brothers. Until we get to the heart of the matter and understand the disease, we cannot hope to find a cure.
Before judging or joining a protest, learn the facts. Study history. Know what happened and why. Then, find a way that you can make a difference. Differences are not made through violence or riots or demonstrations. A difference starts in your heart. And your mind.
More of Kim Frencken's writing and her products can be found at her blog, Chocolate for the Teacher.
11 comments:
Wrong, wrong, and wrong, and wrong.
I'm a historian and history teacher, and so much of this is wrong that it's hard to know where to begin, or even why.
History is not "facts": history is a story in which we explain what we think happened in as convincing a way as possible given what we know, which is often limited. There are known events, people, things, but you'd be surprised how quickly the concept of 'fact' starts to break down if you push on it even the slightest bit. But no 'fact' is useful or interesting in isolation: it's all about context, and what we think the relationship is between that fact and other facts.
Monuments are not history. Monuments are stories that people have decided to tell about history, and since our understanding of history changes over time - depending on the questions that we ask and the studies we've done about causes and effects and theories and the realization that our older histories are incomplete or biased - the stories we want to tell about that history changes and, thus, what we want to memorialize may change as well.
Change happens. You can't preserve everything, nor would you really want to. What you can do is think about what the memorials, the names, the books say about us, and to us, and decide whether it's still meaningful or useful.
Glad I never had this guy as a teacher.
The Duke of York was the first Or at least #2 slave trader in worlds history ( several hundred thousand of them from Africa to the Western Hemisphere);
So historian; should we change the name of New York City and State?
You want a monument to the individual behind all of this in the first place?
Harvey Hutchinson 303-522-6622 voice&text
Do you have proof of that Harvey. Please post or you are a liar under your rules.
Read any biography in the world of the Duke of York
Common knowledge; why don't you look him up and prove me wrong -/Anonymous
Harvey Hutchinson 303-522-6622 voice&text
Harvey has never posted any proof to any claim he has made here at the Turner Report.
Ever.
That I recall.
I mean a proper citation and a link to something that says what he says it says.
NEVER EVER!
Though I agree with most of what Mr. Dresner writes, we must be very careful to not cross the fine line into "revisionist" history. Meaning history the way we think it should have been, not the way it really was.
'Common knowledge' as cited with no citation (do your own work) usually means go on a wild goose chase for all the places another myth from the fetid RWNJ fever swamps has been repeated.
Here you go:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_African_Company
http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/17/new-york-is-named-after-a-horrendous-slave-trader/
http://commonwealthbooksllc.homestead.com/James---Duke-of-York.html
Plenty more are available.
Nobody is erasing history. Nobody is saying these statues shouldn't exist, they're saying they have no place being public monuments, they belong in museums. We don't erect statues of losers, we don't pay homage to monsters. Germany has plenty of Nazi memorabilia in their museums, but they sure as hell don't let that shit be displayed in public, and for good reason.
There's a big difference between acknowledging the dark parts of your past and celebrating it. It's time we stop celebrating it.
Anonymous 9:58;
That was my original point.
With your logic the State and City of New York should change their names rather than celebrate the Duke of York who was the #1 slave trader ever.
All you guys are interested in is the Confederate monument; why doesn't your logic go after more slave owners and traders???
Harvey Hutchinson 303-522-6622 voice&text
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